Charlotte officials released a community commitment report to give an update on promises the City Council made to residents in 2016.
The report addressed affordable housing, crime, policing and job training. In the report, the city touts 4,543 affordable housing units of the 5,000 it promised within three years.
Mayor Vi Lyles spoke at a press conference at the Brightwalk community near Uptown. Afterward, she said the council’s efforts to make more affordable housing have been successful.
“We’ve been doing housing bonds for many years now, and to look around at this community, other communities, and to say that we’re working on it is very real,” Lyles said. “We’ve had some successes, but we’re going to continue.”
A bond referendum on the election ballot this November would give the city $50 million dollars to create more affordable housing units.
City Council member Braxton Winston said after the press conference that even though the bond would help if it passes, it won’t solve what he called a multi-billion dollar affordable housing problem.
“I want to be clear, though, that this housing trust fund isn’t a silver bullet,” Winston said. “It’s a tool.”
The report also points to CMPD's improved commitment to personal responsibility for officers. In 2016, officers started wearing body cameras. Since then, the report shows, the number of external complaints have decreased 45 percent and incidents with use of force have gone down 17 percent.
There’s still a high rate of internal complaints, though there was a 14 percent reduction from 2016. In the report, the city says that the high rate of internal complaints speaks to how “seriously CMPD polices themselves and hold fellow officers accountable for conduct and actions.”
The report also says officer-involved shootings are down from 2016 when there were 12. There have been four officer-involved shootings so far this year and there were five last year.
